Paying Our Debt With Cookies...And The Recipe

Jas has been sporting a pretty new purple accessory.

Jas and the boys were cleaning up a back corner of the pasture.  They were clearing out some leftover broken pottery that some former resident was kind enough to leave for us.  And Jas cut his finger.

It was a pretty good cut.  Pretty Deep.  Pretty Long.  And it gapped very prettily...once it stopped bleeding, that is.  

After contemplating a trip to the ER - which would have been so fun - Jas instead called a friend of ours.  Our friend stitched Jas up...and when Jas asked about paying him, he said he just wanted cookies and a Diet Coke!

Our friend has for many years loved these cookies that I make.  I don't really know what to call them.  I adapted them from the Flax Oatmeal cookie recipe in my Breadbecker's cookbook. (I like this cookbook, but when I use it I now adapt the recipes to properly prepare the grains.)  We added some things, changed out other things...and we now jokingly call them Whole Wheat Flax Oatmeal Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies.  A mouthful, huh?  Well, you'll want to have a mouthful of these cookies!

We were so thankful to our friend for fixing our daddy's finger, that we all jumped in to fix the cookies together.

Well, some of us helped...

...and some just sampled the end results...you know, to make sure they were good enough for our friend.

Daniel made this face on purpose...he held this pose for more than 10 seconds to ensure that I got it...

...but then he did finally try the cookie...

...and he gave it a thumbs-up!

And Elisabeth made a card to accompany our "payment"...

I mentioned that our friend asked for a Diet Coke.  Oh, how it hurt me to buy that soda!  Aspartame - ACCCCKKK! (Not to mention the other bad ingredients.) But Noah was doing the weekly shopping with me and when I said I didn't want to buy the Diet Coke, he said that would be "cheating" our friend.  Soooooo,  he got his Diet Coke...but you know I also included two bottles of homemade Kombucha (one Blueberry, and one Honey Ginger).  

Don't ask where the cookie in the front corner went.

Whole Wheat Flax Oatmeal Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter (no margarine!  organic, hormone-free butter is better, grass-fed even better)

2 cups Evaporated Cane Juice 

2 eggs (pastured is best)

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 c. freshly milled sprouted flour (I used more like 3 cups because I've found when I use spelt I need more)

1 c. oatmeal

1/2 c. ground flax meal (freshly ground in a coffee grinder)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. chocolate chips (soy-free, can be purchased here or here, or make your own easily, like here)

1/2 c. walnuts, chopped (pecans work great also)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream the butter and evaporated cane juice together.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.  Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then gradually beat into creamed mixture.  Finally, add in the chocolate chips and nuts.  Scoop into approximately 1" balls and place on cookie sheet (I heart my baking stones for cookies...and biscuits...and pizza!).  Bake for about 10 minutes.  Yields about 4-5 dozen cookies.  

(WARNING:  Don't scroll down anymore if you don't want to see a picture of Jason's stitches!)

So, how is our daddy doing?  Well, we think he'll survive.  About a day and a half after the accident and stitches, it was time to change his bandage.  You know he had an audience for that.

We're thankful it wasn't any worse of an accident than it was...

...and we're very thankful for wonderful friends!